Tomb of Time
by Celebwen Telcontar
Summary: Didyme is sent to a city to deal with political issues, but is caught up in the geological crisis that unfolds.  Please read and review, it's better than it sounds!  One-shot.


_**Celebwen Telcontar: Please enjoy my new story. It's a Twilight fic involving how Aro tried to kill Didyme.**_

_**Balrog: Tried? Well, that will make things interesting.**_

_**Celebwen Telcontar: I know you'll like it. Please review, people, and I do not own Twilight!**_

She could just wait here. She probably should; she hadn't been able to find the admiral or Ampliatus, her brother's current landholder for the region around the Bay of Naples. Why she had to come here, alone, she had no idea. Now, it was too late to find either of them until this freak storm finished. Hail, rocks rather, were raining down on the city, larger stones intermixed. A gladiator had gone down with a rock to the head.

Unlike them, though, she was a vampire, and invulnerable to falling rocks, even the larger ones. People were still walking to and from their houses and out the gates as much as they could with the small pebbles falling around them. The pebbles floated, oddly enough. She had hunted before going on this trip, so she wasn't tempted too badly by the humans wandering around. She couldn't leap the walls without the humans noticing, and she couldn't go out the gates without waiting for hours or shoving people out of the way. A rumbling beneath her feet caused the humans to go mad, screaming and clutching at each other. They may be doomed, but she was hardier than them. She would wait out the storm, waiting for the break and the dawn.

Suddenly, a sound like a thousand centuries of soldiers reached her ears. The humans took a while to notice it, but when a cloud of foul-smelling gasses reached her, she held her breath. The humans choked and gasped, dying one by one. A dog struggled with his chain, whimpering and barking. Then, the onrushing cloud of ash and sulfur reached them. She was unable to move, despite not being incinerated by the superheated cloud.

* * *

Centuries passed. She was now used to the frozen position she was in, sealed by the ash and cinders that had fallen about her when the mountain let loose its fury. She realized why Aro had sent her here, because she was in the way; he wanted to keep Marcus, but she and Marcus had decided to leave. Her brother wanted to kill her, but not get his hands dirty. He had almost succeeded, only underestimating the heat of the strange occurrence. She had a lot of time to ponder now, to think about vengeance. For so long, she had gone without food, and now she was hardly stronger than a human. She couldn't move even if she tried her hardest.

Then, humans had come, freeing the city. They didn't free her, though, and seemed to have missed her. From their conversations, they had found other people preserved as she had been; only they had died and their bodies had decayed. Then, one day, a couple came to visit the city. They were different, like her.

* * *

Bella, Edward and Renesmee were walking through the streets of the archaeological dig when Edward stopped.

"Someone's here," he said softly so only Bella and Nessie could hear.

"What do you mean?" Bella asked.

"Someone's in that lump of rock there. They must have thought it was a wall."

"Alive? After all this time?" Nessie asked.

"It's a vampire," Edward said. That made more sense; no normal human could survive for almost two thousand years buried in volcanic ash. "We'll return after nightfall and get them out. They've not eaten since the eruption, so they're bound to be hungry. Going too long without food saps our strength."

"I'll bring a couple tigers. Nessie, you need to stay in the hotel with Jacob while we dig the vampire out." Nessie nodded, and the family continued touring the ancient city.

Two large tigers weren't hard to find, but getting them into Pompeii, unseen, after nightfall wasn't easy. The guards were vigilant, and the tigers did not want anything to do with her and fought her every thumb-length of the way, snarling and making a fuss. Finally, she broke their necks and leapt the wall, one tiger under each arm. She met Edward near the wall with the vampire entombed in it, and then they systematically broke down the rock wall. As the head of the vampire came into the fresh air, Bella slit the jugular of one of the tigers and held it to the vampire's mouth. The vampire, a female with long, curly black hair, sucked greedily at the dead animal, and when it was dry, Edward fed her the other one.

"Gratias ago vos summopere pro vestri succurro," the woman said fervently. Bella looked at Edward.

"She's thanking us. Vos es exspectata. Meus nomen est Edward , quod is est meus uxor Isabella. Bella, she's a Roman, I think. I just introduced us."

"That makes sense."

"Meus nomen est Didyme ex Volterra," the woman said. Edward gaped.

"Didyme ex Volterra?" Edward yelped. Bella's eyes widened. This would take the Volturi down a few pegs! She almost laughed with the power she now held over the Volturi. "Operor vos narro English?"

"Haud."

"Great. Bella, she doesn't speak English, and I don't speak Latin very well. We should go back to Forks. Jacob can take Nessie back. Carlisle will know what to do with Didyme." Bella nodded, Edward told the weak vampire to get on his back. They both sped out of the ancient city, across the bay of Naples, and out to sea.

It took almost a week for the three of them to swim the Atlantic, cross the United States (having a surprisingly easy time getting Didyme to stick to her new vegetarian diet), and finally reach the house in Forks. Renesmee and Jacob were there already, having been warned by Alice to come back. Also there was Marcus, alone. Somehow, he had been told of Didyme's rescue, and separated from the Volturi. By his bronze eyes and the scent that clung to him, he was trying out a vegetarian diet.

As soon as she saw him, Didyme rushed into Marcus' arms. They began to speak to each other rapidly in Latin, Carlisle smiling slightly in the background.

"They've decided to stay with us," Alice said in a squeal of joy. Bella could almost picture her dragging Marcus and Didyme out to display their new wardrobes, and the house Esme would undoubtedly build for them.

One day, Aro, Caius and the rest of the Volturi would arrive to try to take Marcus and Didyme back, and/or kill Didyme permanently. But that was a problem for another day. Now they just had to celebrate their family growing by two, Marcus, who had already looked far better and decided to stay as Carlisle's brother, and Didyme, who brought a feeling of cheer, optimism and love to the entire family. They were happy, and that was all that mattered.

_**Celebwen Telcontar: Well?**_

_**Balrog: Good, for once. Especially the eruption. That was fun! I wish you'd gone into a bit more detail.**_

_** Celebwen Telcontar: Live with it. Please review, people!**_

_**CT**_


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